Sheep farmer Colum Ginnelly has been named the February Farming for Nature ambassador of the month.

The Mayo man, who farms 400 acres spread across islands, lowland and commonage on the Nephin Beg Mountain range, won the award after helping to recruit over 150 other farmers to take part in the Wild Atlantic Nature Project.

Also the owner of a private hire bus service, he has taken many groups of visitors, including farmers, policymakers and academics, to visit his farm and other restoration demonstration sites in the locality.

A spokesperson for Farming for Nature said that Ginnelly played a key role in recruitment of elderly friends and neighbours, who may not otherwise have joined the programme.

“His tours impart his knowledge of the local area, as well as sharing his experiences as a farmer,” they said.

“Indeed, as well as communicating the rich cultural history, Colum enthusiastically shares his knowledge of peatland ecology, flora and fauna, whilst taking groups of tourists from the US, Europe and elsewhere on trips to Achill, Connemara and the surrounding region.”

Nature

Ginnelly will be taking part in an online 'Ask the Farmer' Q&A on Tuesday 18 March at 8pm where he will be sharing his experiences of coming around to nature friendly farming.

The Farming for Nature scheme ultimately resulted in payments of more than €1m to farmers in the local area.

Recently, Ginnelly has signed up for another Wild Atlantic Nature plan to fence off 30 acres of overgrazed land on the mountain to see if it can recover.

The sheep farmer said participation in the Wild Atlantic Nature project “was the best thing that ever came here, as we know now what’s going on under our feet, the farmers around here look at their land completely differently now that it’s under a scoring system”.